YOUR PARTNER IN UKRAINE Services | Projects for co-production | Films for distribution
PROJECTS CATALOGUE
P R O J E C T S
F O R
MAKSYM OSA 17th-century mystery thriller | shooting
DIRECTED BY IVAN SAUTKIN — author of award-winning docs (Rotterdam, Clermont-Ferrand), several feature TV films, and the most lauded Ukrainian commercial director.
In the castle on the southern border of Poland, trickster soldier of fortune Maksym Osa is recruited to solve a complex conspiracy, involving a witch, a werewolf, and a lost cart of gold. Based on the comic book of DC Comics collaborator Igor Baranko.
BUDGET SECURED: 65% OF 3 MLN â‚Ź
C O - P R O D U C T I O N
QUESTER&MAX Adventure fantasy film | post-production
DIRECTED BY ANATOLY MATESHKO — proven in family genre, author of family musical ‘Trumpeter’ (2014), as well as over 20 other popular films and TV series.
An artistic, frustrated pre-teen discovers that the graffiti dog he painted with a found can of what he thought was spray-paint, has come to life in the form of an ultra-intelligent super-dog made of nanobots. But now both of them are being hunted by the most dangerous criminal in the city, who will stop at nothing to get this newest technology in his grasp.
BUDGET SECURED: 75% OF 2 MLN €
RING OF LIFE Adventure fantasy family | development
SELECTED TO EAVE WORKSHOP DIRECTED BY SASHA KIRIENKO — director of several feature and TV films, one of each (‘Illusion of Fear’) was Ukrainian submission for Oscars.
Trying to prove the flying suit of his father-inventor works, 9-year-old Mack jumps from the roof. Falling through the ground he enters the Dreamy World – a waiting place between life and death, which looks like Elysium version of Disneyland. To get out of the place he will have to find friends, overcome his fears and defeat the evil Minister ZZZ, who rules the Dreamy World.
SUBMITTED TO UKRAINIAN STATE FILM FUND
OLEKSA. KING OF ROBBERS Epic historical action | development
DIRECTED BY OLES SANIN — author of 2 historical epic films, submitted by Ukraine for Oscars (MAMAY and THE GUIDE). The Guide had box office record for Ukrainian films, and participated in many IFFs (Warsaw, Palm Springs).
Film about legendary Carpathian outlaw Oleksa Dovbush, whose personal revenge to the nobility grew into the people’s uprising for their land and freedom.
BUDGET SECURED: 75% OF 3 MLN €
ENEMY ALIENS Historical drama | Canada/Ukraine | development
DIRECTOR — TBA
A story of two brothers who seek adventure and the promise of free land in Canada, as many Ukrainians, Poles and other Eastern Europeans did before the First World War. From 1914-1920 over 8,500 immigrants from Eastern Europe were wrongfully imprisoned in Canada in more than 24 internment camps. In 1954, the Canadian government destroyed nearly all of the archives and documents and it was removed from history books in Canada.
BUDGET SECURED: 25% OF 4 MLN â‚Ź
ANYWHERE SHE GOES Drama | Ukraine/USA | development
DIRECTED BY BOHDANA SMYRNOVA — NY-based Ukrainian director, graduate of prestigious NYU Tisch School of the Arts, as well as Berlinale Talents and Cannes Cinefondation Residence, whose shorts received over 100 festival selections.
Yana is a foreigner no matter where she goes. Struggling to survive in New York, she returns to her family in Ukraine but abandons them for the chance at romance in India. She craves a real connection but gets lost in the face of war and love. Feature debut by NYU graduate, lecturer at Wesleyan University, participant of Berlinale Talents and Cinefondation Residence — NY-based Ukrainian director Bohdana Smyrnova.
BUDGET SECURED: 50% OF 0.3 MLN €
THE ARC Short war drama | development
DIRECTED BY CHRISTIAN JEREGHI — graduate of famous VGIK film school, war correspondent in Georgia (2008) and Ukraine (2014), veteran of the war in Ukraine, and awardwinning documentary filmmaker.
The unusual look at the war in Ukraine, THE ARC is a parable of humanity set in the abandoned village at the front line. Animals, left behind by their owners, are trying to survive on their own. APC arrives at the village. Pedigree cats and dogs are flocking to it, seeking escape from the hell of war. On board is a chaplain, who can’t take them all...
BUDGET SECURED: 50% OF 68.000 €
SHORT
RABIES Feature documentary | development
DIRECTED BY ANASTASIA MAKSYMCHUK — graduate of Kyiv National Film University, whose short documentary ‘Refuge’ on the same theme won the main prize of the national competition at 2017 Docudays IDFF.
The story of stray dogs, animal protectors, and dog-hunters, clashing in an invisible war for the definition of humanity in a country where, far too often, citizens are forced to act instead of the government.
BUDGET SECURED: 50% OF 100.000 €
DOC
F I L M S
F O R
D I S T R I B U T I O N
FROM BABI YAR TO FREEDOM Oleh Chorny Ukraine | 2017 | 90’ | Documentary | In post-production
In 1969 a successful Soviet writer Anatoly Kuznetsov have escaped the “communist paradise”. He asked for political asylum in London, where he published the uncensored version of his documentary novel “Babi Yar”. The book about Soviets crimes became a worldwide sensation. Because of this truth writer had to defect from USSR. Now, almost half a century later, son of the writer is following the footsteps of his father, whom he last saw as 9-year old boy. He gets to classified KGB documents, meets father’s friends in London – and makes some unexpected conclusions on the circumstances of his father’s sudden death. This investigation sheds light on the price that famous author had to pay for the truth.
RIGHTS AVAILABLE: ALL, INCLUDING FESTIVAL WORLD PREMIERE
DOC
ENTICING, SUGARY, BOUNDLESS OR SONGS AND DANCES ABOUT DEATH Tetiana Khodakivska, Oleksandr Stekolenko Ukraine | 2017 | 95’ | Creative documentary
In a delicate and humane manner, this film touches upon a very serious issue — how to stop fearing death while being in love with life. We will talk (and laugh) on this subject with the heroes of this film — modern geniuses and ordinary people from different parts of the world. Among them: Enrica Antonioni — the widow of Michelangelo Antonioni; Georgian painter Tamuna Melikishvili; American virtuoso accordionist Guy Klucevsek and others.
RIGHTS AVAILABLE: ALL, INCLUDING FESTIVAL WORLD PREMIERE
DOC
UGLY Juri Rechinsky
Austria/Ukraine | 2017 | 91’ | Drama
A cigarette held in bloody fingers. A woman squirming in a bed, screaming. A man is waiting. A love story. A boat on Lake Neusiedl, a hospital in the Ukraine. A burning field. Another love story. Sickness and the big vanishing into oblivion. Somewhere, death is awaiting. Somewhere else life.
Festivals: ROT TERDAM (Bright Future) ODESSA (Competition) DIAGONALE (Best Camera)
RIGHTS AVAILABLE: LOOKING FOR WORLD SALES
BREAKING POINT: THE WAR FOR DEMOCRACY IN UKRAINE Oles Sanin, Mark Jonathan Harris USA/Ukraine | 2016 | 98’ | Documentary
Just days after the 2014 Revolution in Ukraine that led to the toppling of the country’s president, Ukraine was invaded by Russia. Ukrainians of all backgrounds rallied to the country’s defense, in the process creating a new sense of nationhood. Breaking Point depicts these turbulent events, at times heroic, at times tragic, through the eyes of people who lived them — a doctor, a soldier, a children’s theater director, a rabbi, and an investigative reporter.
Festivals: HOT SPRINGS, SANTA BARBARA, AMDOCS, ANNAPOLIS (Best Documentary), SAN LUIS OBISPO (Best Documentary), REGINA (Jury Mention)
RIGHTS AVAILABLE: ACQUISITION AND FESTIVALS AT SALES@SYNERGETICDISTRIBUTION.COM
DOC
THE LEADING ROLE Serhiy Bukovsky
Ukraine | 2016 | 63’ | Documentary
This is a film about my mother — movie actress Nina Antonova. About a hundred roles — big and small. She was a celebrity... This is a very personal story. Funny and sad. About my family where life and films were inseparable, and where those involved often mistook the alternate reality for real life. About the change of fate... About new roles, and new hopes...
Festivals: DOK LEIPZIG, ODESSA (Best Actor), UKRAINIAN FILM ACADEMY AWARDS (Best Documentary), DOCUDAYS
RIGHTS AVAILABLE: ACQUISITION AND FESTIVALS AT SALES@TASKOVSKIFILMS.COM
DOC
BLOOD SAUSAGE Arkadiy Nepytaliuk
Ukraine | 2016 | 23’ | Comedy/drama
Andrii’s parents butchered a pig to make traditional Ukrainian meal, blood sausage, for Masha, their future daughter-in-law. They want to meet her as their own, to cook the best meal they can — a dish made of pig blood. But Masha is Jewish. And no one knows about it except Andrii.
Festivals: MOLODIST (Best Short), UKRAINIAN FILM ACADEMY AWARDS (Best Short)
RIGHTS AVAILABLE: ALL
SHORT
THE GUIDE Oles Sanin
Ukraine | 2014 | 120’ | Historical drama
Ukraine, 1930s. American engineer arrives to Kharkiv with his ten-year old son, to help build socialism. He falls in love with an actress (Jamala) who has another admirer, communist commissar. Under tragic circumstances, the American is killed and his son is saved from his pursuers by a blind minstrel. With no other chance to survive in a foreign land, the boy becomes his guide. Their journey, full of dangerous adventures, unfolds against the background of one of the most dramatic pages of Ukrainian history.
Festivals: WARSAW, PALM SPRINGS, COT TBUS, GOA, ODESSA (Best Actor, Best Cinematography), BARI (Special Mention), KYOTO
RIGHTS AVAILABLE: ALL TERRITORIES EXCEPT: KOREA, TURKEY, ESTONIA, LITHUANIA (TV), POLAND (TV)
BROTHERS.
THE FINAL CONFESSION Victoria Trofimenko Ukraine | 2013 | 120’ | Drama
The film is a psychological drama developing on the highlands of the Carpathian Mountains. Two helpless old men, brothers, desperately trying to keep up competition with each other in order to prolong their lives. Even though their bodies are decaying and both are sick the one still wants to outlive the other. But one day a woman enters their remote dwelling...
Festivals: BEIJING, SHANGHAI, MOSCOW (Best Actress, Critics Jury Prize), ROMANIA (Best Debut), BAGHDAD (Jury Prize), GOA, YEREVAN
RIGHTS AVAILABLE: ALL, EXCEPT CHINA (AIRPLANES), GREECE (THEATRICAL)
MAMAY Oles Sanin
Ukraine | 2003 | 80’ | Historical drama
Mamay draws on traditional Ukrainian and Tatar folk tales for its Romeo and Juliet-like love story and parable about chivalry and the struggle for freedom. Hundreds of years ago, in the wild steppes of Crimea that form an uneasy border between East and West, Europe and Asia, nomad and farmer, the proud Cossack Mamay falls in love with the Tatar beauty Omai. The title, like the storyline, holds a variety of different meanings taken from different cultures. In Turkic languages, it means “no one”. In Persian legends, mamay literally means “the spirit of the steppes.”
RIGHTS AVAILABLE: ALL